From the stacks

In the campus library today on my way to the books about physiognomy this caught my attention. I think I know the answer to the question posed by the title: men barbecue because it gets them out of the house. But upon closer inspection I found that it's not really what I was expecting. As this review makes clear, the author spends way more time defending female genital mutilation (in Africa) than on explicating masculinity or discussing pan-cultural universals of cookery.

As for the face books, they were sandwiched between volumes on graphology, phrenology, and other old pseudosciences. But physiognomy, unlike those things, is making a comeback. See for example this fascinating book.